Find a Book Festival
Scotland is a nation of readers and boasts more than 50 book and literary festivals held throughout the year from Stornoway to the Scottish Borders and from Skye to Aberdeen.
We aim to collate a full, up-to-date list of all the book festivals so please let us know if there are any events that should be included or details to be updated via email on admin@literaturealliancescotland.co.uk or on Twitter @LitScotland.
Happy reading around the nation!
Book Festivals in Scotland
| MONTH | DATE | EVENT | WEBSITE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FEBRUARY | 2-18 Feb 2018 | Winter Words Festival Pitlochry | @PITLOCHRYft | pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com |
| 2-4 Feb 2018 | Further From Festival Linlithgow | @Furtherfrom | maddingcrowdlinlithgow.com | |
| 23-25 Feb 2018 | Granite Noir Aberdeen | @GraniteNoirFest #GraniteNoirFest | aberdeenperformingarts.com/granitenoir | |
| 24 Feb 2018 | Crime at the Castle Glamis Castle | Programme | ||
| MARCH | 3-4 Mar 2018 | Wee Write! | @AyeWrite | ayewrite.com/weewrite |
| 7-11 Mar 2018 | StAnza Poetry Festival Scotland's International Poetry Festival, St Andrews | @StAnzaPoetry #StAnza18 | stanza poetry.org | |
| 15-25 Mar 2018 | Aye Write! Glasgow's Book Festival | @AyeWrite | ayewrite.com | |
| 23-25 Mar 2018 | Big DoG Children's Book Festival Wigtown | @BigDog_Fest | Big DoG Festival PDF | |
| APRIL | 19-22 Apr 2018 | BIG LIT: The Stewartry Book Festival Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway | biglit.org | |
| 14-15 Apr 2018 | Glasgow Zine Fest | @GlasgowZineFest | glasgowzinefest.com | |
| 26 Apr - 6 May 2018 | TradFest Annual showcase of TRACS tradition arts and culture Scotland, Edinburgh | @TradFestEd | tracscotland.org | |
| 28 & 29 April 2018 | Colonsay Book Festival | @ColonsayBookFes #CBF18 | colonsaybookfestival.org.uk | |
| MAY | 4-6 May 2018 | Boswell Book Festival Dumfries House, Ayrshire | @bozzyfest | boswellbookfestival.co.uk |
| 8-19 May 2018 | Booked! West Dunbartonshire Festival of Words | @wdclibraries | Tickets | |
| 11-13 May 2018 | Ullapool Book Festival Ross-shire, Scottish Highlands | @UllapoolBookFes | ullapoolbookfestival.co.uk | |
| 11-27 May 2018 | Southside Fringe Festival Glasgow's Southside | @KeepItSouth | southsidefringe.com | |
| 12-19 May 2018 | Off the Page Stirling | @CultureStirling | culturestirling.org/off-the-page/ | |
| 17-19 May | Booked! ReimagiNation: Glenrothes | @edbookfest | booked.edbookfest.co.uk | |
| 18-20 May 2018 | Coastword Dunbar | @CoastWordFest | coastward.co.uk |
|
| tbc | May Festival University of Aberdeen | abdn.ac.uk/mayfestival | ||
| JUNE | 14-17 June 2018 | Baillie Gifford Borders Book Festival Melrose | @BordersBookFest #bordersbookfest18 | bordersbookfestival.org |
| 27 Jun - 1 Jul 2018 | East Neuk Festival | @EastNeukFest #ENF2018 | eastneukfestival.com | |
| 30 June 2018 | Glasgow Comic Con Scotland's Comic Book Festival | @glasgowcomiccon | glasgowcomiccon.com | |
| JULY | tbc | Scot Lit Fest Scotland's virtual book festival presented by Saltire Society | @scotlitfest #scotlitfest | scotlitfest.scot |
| AUGUST | 3-5 Aug 2018 | Bute Noir Crime Writing Festival Isle of Bute | @ButeNoir #butenoir | butenoir.co.uk |
| 3-12 Aug 2018 | Fringe by the Sea North Berwick | @fringebythesea2 | fringebythesea.com | |
| 11-27 Aug 2018 | Edinburgh International Book Festival | @edbookfest #edbookfest | edbookfest.co.uk | |
| 25 & 26 Aug 2018 | Beyond Borders International Festival of Literature and Thought | @BeyondBorders__ | beyondbordersscotland.com | |
| 31 Aug - 9 Sept 2018 | McLellan Art Festival, Arran Celebrating late great Scottish dramatist and short story writer Robert McLellan | arrantheatreandarts.co.uk/mclellan-festival | ||
| SEPTEMBER | 6-8 Sept 2018 | Skye Book Festival | @SkyeBookFest | skyebookfestival.co.uk |
| 10-15 Sept 2018 | Spirit of Moray Book Festival Elgin | @librariesmoray #SpiritofMoray | ||
| 11-16 Sept 2018 | Nairn Book & Arts Festival Inverness | @Nairn_Festival | nairnfestival.co.uk | |
| 21-23 Sept 2018 | Bloody Scotland Scotland's international crime writing festival, Stirling | @BloodyScotland #bloodyscotland | bloodyscotland.com | |
| 21-30 Sep 2018 | Wigtown Book Festival Scotland's national book town's literary festival | @WigtownBookFest #wigtown | wigtownbookfestival.com | |
| 27-30 Sept 2018 | Islay Book Festival | @islaybookfest | islaybookfestival.co.uk | |
| 28-29 Sep 2018 | Three Lochs Book & Arts Festival Strontian | threelochs.co.uk | ||
| 28-30 Sept 2018 | Tidelines Irvine, North Ayrshire | @TidelinesFest | tidelinesbookfest.com | |
| tbc | Byres Road Book Festival Glasgow's West End | @byresrdbookfest | byresroadbookfestival.com | |
| tbc | Bookends Benderloch, Oban | |||
| OCTOBER | tbc | Imprint Book Festival East Ayrshire | ||
| 4-7 Oct 2018 | Ness Book Fest Inverness | @NessBookFest1 | nessbookfest.wordpress.com | |
| 5-7 Oct 2018 | Bookmark Blairgowrie, Rattray & The Glens, Perth & Kinross | @bookmarkblair | bookmarkblair.com | |
| 19-21 Oct 2018 | Berwick Literary Festival | @BerwickLitFest | berwickliteraryfestival.com | |
| 19-31 Oct 2018 | Scottish International Storytelling Festival Edinburgh | @ScotStoryCentre | scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk | |
| 25-28 Oct 2018 | Orkney Storytelling Festival | @OrkneyStoF | orkneystorytellingfestival.co.uk | |
| tbc | Faclan Hebridean Book Festival An Lanntair, Stornoway | @anlanntair | lanntair.com | |
| tbc | Tarbert Book Festival Argyll | @TarbertBookFest | tarbertbookfestival.org | |
| NOVEMBER | tbc | Wordplay Shetland Arts' annual book festival | @ShetlandArts | www.shetlandarts.org |
| tbc | A Write Highland Hoolie! Mallaig's Book Festival | @WriteHoolie | a-write-highland-hoolie.com | |
| 13 Nov 2018 | Robert Louis Stevenson Day Annual week of events in Edinburgh and online in run up to RLS' birthday on 13 Nov | #RLSDay | ||
| tbc | Cove and Kilcreggan Book Festival Argyll & Bute | @coveburghhall | coveburghhall.org.uk | |
| 24 Nov 2018 (& 1-2 Dec below) | Dreams for the Future Dumfries | @PPMBT | peterpanmoatbrae.org | |
| tbc | Book Week Scotland Scotland-wide, brought to you by Scottish Book Trust | @BookWeekScot | bookweekscotland.com | |
| tbc | Scottish Storytelling Centre Winter Festival | @ScotStoryCentre | bookweekscotland.com" rel="noopener" target="_blank">scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk | |
| DECEMBER | 1-2 Dec 2018 | Dreams for the Future Dumfries | @PPMBT | peterpanmoatbrae.org |